In Brief: Experience ‘Family Days’ at Birch Aquarium with UCSD

Family Days is a monthly program at Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, that embraces family learning and togetherness by blending arts and crafts, science, special tours and one-of-a-kind activities for all ages.

Programs are included with aquarium admission and take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On Saturday, April 19 La Jolla Above and Below learn about La Jolla’s natural wonders on land and in the ocean. Meet with Scripps researchers who study marine reserves, including the 533-acre reserve off the coast of La Jolla. Guests from the La Jolla Shores Map project also will attend.

The giant map planned for Kellogg Park will highlight local marine life as well as natural and historic landmarks. Groundbreaking is planned for this spring.

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On Saturday, May 17 the Breathing in a Changing Climate program will uncover the link between air pollution, climate change and our amazing lungs as Scripps researchers bring real-time experiments to this climate-themed Family Day. See how much air our lungs can hold and test the quality of air we breathe through a special filter. From lungs to gills, you’ll also see how fishes can breathe in a watery world.

Although those in attendance at the new Safe, Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative (SHNI) meeting Sept. 4 in the La Jolla Library were seeking local solutions to the homelessness they’ve observed in their neighborhoods, they were met instead with broader City- and County-wide resources that address the varied facets of this very complex issue.

Sitting at the Brick & Bell coffee shop in La Jolla Shores on Sept. 4 with local residents Sandra Munson and Tim Johnson as they catch up over iced teas, one would never know that just three weeks prior, the two were undergoing surgery so Munson could donate a kidney to Johnson.